


Fire and Ice

by taggianto



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Fluff, Kissing, M/M, prompts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-12
Updated: 2012-06-12
Packaged: 2017-11-07 14:21:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/432107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taggianto/pseuds/taggianto
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two longer prompts from the Crescendo universe - Jim cooks for Sebastian, then Sebastian gets Jim to try something new</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Fire

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt from [hititagain](hititagain.tumblr.com).

“I’m perfectly capable of making a meal for myself, Sebastian.” Jim stood with his arms crossed, blocking the way into their small kitchen. “I did manage to survive for several years before you turned up, you know.”

“Yes and when I met you, you were 30 pounds underweight and verging on malnourished.” Sebastian mirrored Jim’s stance as he stood outside the kitchen. He was hungry, damnit, and Jim was being stubborn. As per usual.

Jim held his ground for a moment, but then flicked his gaze to the floor. “And you know why that was,” he said quietly, a faintly cold edge to his voice.

Sebastian sighed, feeling slightly guilty for the remark. He did know. He knew full well that before they’d found each other, Jim had been adrift, more or less consumed by his work. It wasn’t that he couldn’t cook or didn’t want to eat – food simply wasn’t as interesting as the intricacies of infiltrating a minor country’s government and was therefore deemed unnecessary. From what Sebastian had heard, it had almost landed him in a hospital more than once.

Jim didn’t like to talk about it.

“Okay, fine,” Sebastian said with a huff. “If you want to cook tonight, I’m not going to argue.” He stepped to the side and sank down onto one of the stools at the breakfast bar. “Be nice to have a night off, actually.”

Jim grinned and opened the laptop that was sitting on the counter. He glanced at the recipe he’d bookmarked earlier in the day and started pulling ingredients from the fridge.

“So what’s on the menu tonight, then?” Sebastian asked, leaning his elbows on the counter, chin in his hands as he watched Jim move about the kitchen.

“Chicken stir-fry. Where’s the coconut oil?”

“Second cupboard from the left, on the lazy susan. You need a recipe for stir-fry?” Sebastian arched an eyebrow but was quickly subdued by the look Jim shot him. He contented himself with watching as Jim’s knife made quick work of a few different kinds of peppers and an onion. Jim might not have been as quick with a knife as Sebastian was, but he was by no means any less precise or skilled.

They sat in easy silence, Jim now cutting up the chicken breast into thin strips and Sebastian peeling the garlic Jim had tossed at him. It was nice, this quiet evening in, both comfortable in the other’s presence. It was the kind of domestic calm that Sebastian had never imagined he’d find himself in, let alone find himself enjoying.

But enjoy it he did. After a day (or, frequently, a night) of running around London orchestrating any number of nefarious schemes, it was nice to have something fairly grounded to come home to.

Home. Now there was something else he’d never thought he’d find.

Sebastian looked up from his garlic to see Jim had his back to him now, swirling a pan over the gas flame with one hand. “Y’know, babe, if you add a little oregano to the oil –”

“The recipe doesn’t call for that,” Jim said in a slightly annoyed tone, gesturing to the laptop. He went back to moving the pan in the heat, coating the bottom and sides in oil.

Sebastian chuckled. Of course Jim would need to follow the recipe verbatim. It was a Plan, and Plans always had to be executed perfectly and To The Letter. In contrast, Sebastian wasn’t afraid to improvise as the situation called for it, whether he was cooking dinner or reacting to a deal gone wrong. That was a large part of what made them work so well together – Jim’s careful planning kept them safe for the most part and Sebastian’s ability to think on his feet saved them if the precious Plan was compromised.

 Jim was delicately placing the chicken strips in the hot oil now, flinching slightly as they popped and sizzled. Sebastian sidled up behind his boss/husband/lover, threading his arms around his sides. He rested his hands on the soft cotton t-shirt stretched tight across Jim’s stomach. He could get used to this. Jim leaned back against Sebastian as he stirred the chicken in the pan, swaying his hips slightly. Sebastian matched his movements subconsciously, the two of them falling into a gentle sort of rhythm.

The vegetables were added to another pan when the chicken was nearly cooked, bright red and green peppers, chopped onions and minced garlic. Sebastian slipped to the side to toss them a few times, keeping a hand on Jim’s lower back. He tossed the pan some more once Jim had added the chicken and drizzled everything with balsamic vinegar. After a few more minutes of Jim’s careful stirring and Sebastian’s occasional tossing, they divided the stir-fry onto two separate plates.

“Counter, couch, or table?” Sebastian asked as he indicated each in turn. Jim chose the couch and they made their way over to the sofa against the wall. Sebastian grabbed the TV remote from the coffee table and pressed the power button, bringing the flat screen to life with a slight hum. Sebastian scrolled absently through their Netflix instant queue. “What do you wanna watch, babe?”

Jim pondered the titles as they flicked past. “ _Casablanca_ ,” he decided after a moment, sinking back into the cushions. Jim had a soft spot for old black and white movies. Not that he would ever admit to having a soft _anything_ , but Sebastian knew it was true.

Sebastian pressed play and a map of Africa filled the screen, soon followed by the opening credits. He brought a forkful of stir-fry up to his mouth, aware that Jim was watching him like a hawk. He smirked and made a show of placing the morsel in his mouth, chewing thoughtfully.

“Good?” Jim asked, slightly apprehensive.

Sebastian chewed some more, dragging the moment out before swallowing. Then, leaning in to bring his face level with Jim’s, he smiled. “Perfect.” He pressed a soft kiss to Jim’s lips. As he pulled away, Jim was grinning with pride.


	2. Ice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sebastian gets Jim to try something new

“Never? Not once in your entire life?” Sebastian stood with his hands tucked deep within the pockets of the black wool coat Jim had gotten him for Christmas last month. His words came out in puffy white clouds of breath in the frigid winter air. They were stopped on a path that wound through the snow blanketed park near their flat.

Jim looked up at his sniper, eyes bored. He had a deep red scarf wrapped around his neck and tucked into the front of his own light-grey coat. It rather gave him the look of a songbird puffed up against the cold.  “No.” He cocked his head to the side which only increased the bird visual. “Why, does that surprise you?”

“Right, that settles it. Come on.” Sebastian extracted a gloved hand from his pocket and wound an arm around Jim’s back, steering him toward the nearby pond.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing, Sebastian?” Jim half-heartedly struggled against Sebastian’s grip but gave up almost immediately. When Sebastian wanted Jim to go somewhere, he could be very insistent.

“You and I are going ice skating,” Sebastian said rather matter-of-factly.

At the pondside booth, Sebastian paid for two hockey skate rentals and carried them over to the bench where Jim was sitting sulkily. Jim arched an eyebrow at the skates in Sebastian’s hand. “You can’t be serious.”

“I have never been more serious in my entire life,” Sebastian said as he sat next to Jim on the bench. He slipped out of his boots and into the waiting skates. Jim just sat there, eyeing the skates like they were a rabid animal about to attack. “Come on,” Sebastian insisted, nudging him with his elbow.

Jim let out a long-suffering sigh before untying his shoes and setting them aside. With a deep breath, he slipped the first skate on and tried lacing it up. He got about halfway up before Sebastian chuckled and knelt down to lace it up properly for him. “Really, Sebastian. I can handle this…”

“Jim, I don’t need you twisting your ankle out there because you didn’t lace your skates tight enough. Now hush and give me your other foot.” Jim let out a groan that sounded something like _this is fucking ridiculous_ , but he did as Sebastian instructed.

They made their way to the pond’s edge with little incident, Jim leaning on Sebastian’s arm for support. Several other people were out on the cleared pond ice – couples, families, friends – laughing and skating around in circles. Sebastian stepped out onto the ice with practiced ease, spinning 180 degrees on the blades to face Jim. He held out his hands and motioned for Jim to follow. Jim just shot him a dark look. “You are going to pay for this later, Moran.”

Sebastian grinned. He could see the mixture of fear and curiosity behind Jim’s eyes. “Oh I’m sure I will, but it’ll be worth it. Now come on, no time like the present.”

Jim raised one foot with trepidation, arms automatically flying out from his sides for balance as he did so. He tapped the toe of the blade on the ice, testing it. Then with a deep breath, he pushed himself forward and onto the ice, sliding and slamming into Sebastian’s waiting arms. Sebastian caught him easily and countered the movement so they didn’t both go crashing to the surface.

Sebastian held Jim close for several minutes. Jim stood stock still and frozen, barely even breathing, this was something new and he really didn’t want to go tumbling to the ice anytime soon. Sebastian waited patiently as he got used to the feeling of ice beneath his skates. After Jim had relaxed at least somewhat, Sebastian brought a gloved hand to Jim’s chin and raised it. “Ready?”

Jim nodded and Sebastian slowly started moving them out further onto the ice. Well, Sebastian skated, Jim more or less just allowed himself to be pulled along by his hand.

“Come on, move your feet,” Sebastian said with a grin. “It’s not like walking, it’s more like… well like swimming, treading water. Keep one foot planted and push against the ice with the other… here, like this.”Sebastian dropped Jim’s hand and sped off along the icy surface, reveling in the freedom and speed. He hadn’t skated like his since he was a boy, it was invigorating.

Jim stood rooted to his spot in the middle of the pond, hugging his arms to himself as he watched Sebastian circle the pond with envy. He awkwardly tried to skate forward an inch, but he felt so unsteady on his feet that he quickly gave up. Sebastian skated back over to where Jim stood, stopping himself with a spray of ice. Jim frowned slightly as the spray hit his trousers, but he looked up at Sebastian with a bit of awe in his eyes. “You’re… rather good at this, Seb.”

“Played a lot of ice hockey when I was younger, while we were living in Moscow. Now come on, take my hand. I’m not letting you off this pond until you’ve at least done one lap.”

Jim reached out and soon he was being pulled along on the ice quickly. He watched how Sebastian’s feet were moving across the surface and did his best to mimic them, Sebastian catching him several times as he almost fell to the surface. The fact that he had Sebastian there at his side bolstered his confidence and soon he was matching the sniper’s pace, skating beside him rather than being dragged behind.

Sebastian looked over to see the pure, honest smile on Jim’s face, cheeks rosy from the cold. His own grin widened and he skated forward a bit, turning to skate backwards in front of Jim. He took Jim’s other hand and swung them slightly, back and forth. He then slowed their pace, wrapping his arms around Jim’s waist, slowing them to a stop in the middle of the pond.

“Why’d you stop? I was just getting good,” Jim said, a slight pout coming across his face.

“Because I wanted to do this,” Sebastian said, leaning down to capture Jim’s mouth in a kiss. After an initial start of surprise – Jim rarely let Sebastian kiss him in public – he felt him relax and be taken in by the moment. They were both breathing heavy from the effort of skating in the chilly winter air which made the kiss open mouthed and sloppy. It was wonderful.

“Okay, that’s enough,” Jim said after a minute, glancing around at the other skaters on the ice. No one paid them any special attention. “Can we go home now?”

“Nope, now we gotta go get some hot chocolate,” Sebastian said with a cheeky grin.

Jim scowled. “But I don’t even like hot chocolate.”

“Doesn’t matter. It’s the law. After you go ice skating, you must get hot chocolate or face a hefty fine. Now come on,” Sebastian said as he pulled away from Jim and skated toward the edge of the pond. Sebastian would pay for this, yes, but he'd make sure he enjoyed it. Jim smiled and followed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Hannah](http://www.archiveofourown.org/users/hannah_baker)
> 
> was feeling down so I said I would write a fluffy drabble for her. And then it just… wouldn’t… end…  <3
> 
> One word prompt: Ice


End file.
